tasty food for your face

October 15, 2015October 13, 2015

Carrot Muffins

About a week ago, I bought one of those five pound bags of carrots on sale at the grocery store. I only kind of like raw carrots and we don’t love cooked carrots at all (unless it’s in beef stew. I’ll eat anything if it’s in beef stew).

Anyway. I read on the internet (which would never lie to me, right??) I could shred and freeze them, so my food processor and I got to work. I ended up with about 10 1-cup portions of shredded carrot to freeze along with about 6 cups to use now(ish). Mostly, I just couldn’t bring myself to bag up more carrot.
Then, I went searching for muffin recipes and ended up with this healthy sounding muffin from the Little Spice Jar that sounded pretty good.

Half whole wheat flour and half AP. Some sugar but lots of applesauce for sweetening. But raisins? And nuts? NOPE. I debated what I was going to sub in for the chunks and finally settled on white chocolate chips. I was hoping to capture that feeling and look of cream cheese frosting that often accompanies a carrot cake.

I also made a few other substations based on what I had. And then, like an idiot. I put the batter in the pans before I sprayed them with cooking spray. Ugh. They came out ok but kind of ugly since there was some of the crust stuck inside the cups.
The taste made up for their lack of beauty though. Super moist, carroty, and a great texture. I loved the white chocolate addition.

Carrot Apple Butter Muffins

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

½ tablespoon cinnamon

¾ cup vegetable oil

1 cup dark brown sugar, packed

½ cup apple butter (or sauce, if you don’t have any apple butter)

¼ cup buttermilk

3 large eggs, room temperature

2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups carrots, finely shredded

½ cup shredded sweetened coconut

1 cup white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350

Combine the wet ingredients: brown sugar, oil, buttermilk, eggs, and vanilla. Stir together until well incorporated. Add dry ingredients: flours, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Mix until just incorporated. Fold in carrots and coconut, then chips.

Spray your muffin tins with cooking spray (or use another method like muffin cups if you prefer. Bake for 20 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.